People are powerful, and people using social media as a way
to publicize events in History is becoming more and more common. It’s 2010 and
a revolution is taking place, known famously as the “Arab Springs”. People came
together in countries such as Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen
to fight a political battle and caused an uprising. The whole thing has been
splashed over various social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and
there has been no escaping it. There have been so many dramatic events since
the uprising two years ago, and coverage has been prominent. It has changed so
fast and no one could have imagined this happening. Even with live news feeds
reaching out to the rest of the world, I believe there was really a social revolution
and it did affect the outcome of the whole uprising thus far.
It all started in 2010. Take street vendor Mohammed
Bouazizi, who represented a generation of jobless and unemployed Arabs.
Prospects were scarce for these young men, and they wanted to do something
about it. Unemployed Arabs made up 60% of the population and they were what
started the uprising. It must be unimaginable to have that many young,
potential happy people living in such misery with nothing to get up for in the
morning, and the political leaders were not helping the case. Something needed
to be done, fast. In a bid to mark his disgust at the way his country and
fellow peers where heading, he set himself on fire in protest. This was the
final straw. Even Feyda Hamdi is said to have provoked this young man’s
suicide. You could say, this event and date (17th December
2010), kicked off the whole revolution. The world was shocked at this young
man’s actions.
Protests soon followed Bouazizi’s actions, and people wanted
to topple the current Arab regime. The people were angry. Not only where jobs
low, but the price of food and general living was rising. They took to the
streets holding up banners and protesting in vast numbers. Soon, images started
to appear over Twitter and Facebook. People from all over the world had now
access to images that merely around 20 years before, would not have been
possible. They were starting to cause a complete national mayhem whilst getting
their point across. Protests soon continued into other countries such as Egypt,
all wanting to challenge the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. With all the
word on the street, America soon got involved. They wanted to take “all
necessary measure” to protect the civilians in Libya, and within days soon war
had broke out. Bombs were being dropped and Gaddafi’s forces felt the wrath of
the angry, dissatisfied people. It wasn’t long before one of the dictators;
Gaddafi was finally killed by rebel fighters. It was an amazing moment in
history and well deserved.
More major events in history soon followed, with
President Saleh leaving Yemen, and 33 years of power behind his belt leaving.
This was on the 22nd of January 2012. All was not perfect
though, as he left a mess behind which had to be cleared up. Moving onto
Egypt’s first free presidential election, Mohammed Morsi won in June 2012. There
are a lot of huge political and economic challenges which are still being faced
today.
The Arab springs has a long way to go before everything
is perfect, however the last few years have been so important in the revolution
and uprising thanks to the people of the countries involved. Just how did
social media have an impact in all that has happened over the last few years?
And how has it helped civilians in their fight against harsh regimes and bad
standards of life?
Facebook allows people to get together and discuss many
different ideas and it has a mass audience. It would be easy to publicly spread
the word on such a site like Facebook. It was said that during the revolt,
however, Facebook accounts where even being shut down and certain individuals
sharing information were targeted. With regards to showing images and gaining
publicity in that way, would be YouTube. Photographs, videos and even people
recording their own personal opinion on the site would spread quickly. It is
the fastest growing video site available at the moment, and it is free to use
which would really help get “free” publicity out. More examples of social media
that is revolutionising the world is Linkedin. This allows users to connect
with different people all over the world, and, like Twitter allows people to
see what subjects are popular and trending.
Activists claim they can influence the media with the power of on line
social media. The television in countries such as Egypt is monitored by the
government, however creating things like credible blogs, tweeting important
information and even the filming of protests and putting them on websites such
as YouTube can influence the outside world and media. Video cameras could be
seen in many of the protests, and in my opinion this spoke louder than any
words ever could. Citizens would tweet stories to journalists all over the
world, which in turn created mass publicity outside of their country. The media
gives people voices they never had before, and if used correctly can be extremely
powerful. Low cost videos and documentation of protests can shape the media and
what may be portrayed in certain ways. Some images were very shocking, such as
pictures of people dying or getting shot and covered in blood. I feel this was
a smart moved and very powerful, as it got the point across that it was
inhumane what was happening over there are something did need to be done about
it. Images can be more powerful than words, and people such as the communities
in Egypt soon realised this. They decided to train members of the community
into using such things such as low cost video cameras and projectors to make a
difference. They hoped to influence their audience on a global scale. It helped
activists communicate and organise their actions throughout the revolt, and
some people will forever say that the power of social media in such
circumstances was crucial. The digital and physical world in the last few years
has been just as important, and despite many of the opposing leaders trying to
stop civilians communicating with the outside world through means such as Face
book and Twitter, there is a such a wide variety of people on the sites these
days and one picture posted could really make a difference. Despite the dangers
some people put themselves in order to blog and reach a wider audience, word
still got out and networked throughout the country in a much easier way than
propaganda television shows or newspapers ever could.
However, some people argue that social media did not
help the revolution. Powerful people could spy on social media really easily,
and work out their next plan of action or regime. It kept people under a
watchful eye, and some people believe this was not a good thing. Sceptics also
argue that only 5% of Egyptians even use Facebook or Twitter, and in comparison
to the population that is not very much. Could the information people are
sending out be dramatised or biased? Hackers can turn things around, track
people down and watch their every movement.
So how does social media work?
There are three interrelated dimensions within social media.
Firstly, there is the personal dimension. This focuses on relationships between
individuals, and people who are friends, enemies or even work colleagues can
keep up to date over personal social networking. Secondly, there is the digital
terrain which is also known as the information terrain. This is the moving of
data throughout the world instantly and cheaply, which is extremely important
in countries such as the Arab Spring where not much money is available at hand.
Finally, there is global terrain, (also known as the geospatial terrain). This
is when an individual’s location affects their social access and can determine
which information they can obtain. Manipulating these terrains can influence control
and outcome.
Twitter has been known to organise protest groups. In
2011 evidence and an analysis of twitter suggested that the crowd
self-organised by the mobile world of Twitter. The crowed had been tracking
each other through twitter, and as it uses GPS it was really useful for
tactical and operation support during the uprising. Twitter evidence around
this time shows a lot of communication and information swapping via the site
and it help mobilise crowds in the street. It allowed them to find each other
in a way that has never been seen before. The same could be said for Facebook,
Youtube and other similar sites.
Mobile phones allowed live footage to be
streamed, and sharing it was almost instant. This means that protests could be
extremely easily planned with the touch of a button, and no one needs to know
when and where it will be held until the day. There is clear evidence tweets
and social interaction rose between people. It is important to remember that
not all the protesters were connected nor had Internet connection.
With a small few, it’s surprising to see how useful social media impacted not
only their fellow peers but the rest of the world. With media swelling, the
more protesters appeared.
To conclude, I feel social media really did
help in the Arab Spring revolution evolve. I actually think it played a major
key part, and that social media is extremely powerful these days. It can be
powerful for the right or wrong reasons, however. It is important that the
world learnt about what was going on and it got the word out quicker than hear
say. It was used in the correct way, and is forever growing. It will become
more and more successful in the future in my opinion, however people have to be
careful about sharing too much information as you don’t know who is following
you or reading what you are writing. As time goes on I feel more and more
people will be able to access Internet and influence the media. It is forever a
fast moving movement and will continue to grow; causing everyday people to have
more power and say in what happens in their life and to their country. The
media is becoming more “person” biased instead of world leaders taking
control and having the power. With the way their country was run before the
revolution, any change can be a good change and I do feel we have social media
to thank for that.
